Sixth century A.D. Greek Neoplatonist philosopher of the Athenian school who, along with John Philoponus, was a student of Ammonius Hermiae. Olympiodorus joined them in performing perhaps the first critical commentaries on Aristotelian science. He...

Olympiodorus (born ca 380, active ca 412-25) was an historical writer of classical education, a "poet by profession" as he says of himself, who was born at Thebes in Egypt, and was sent on a mission to the Huns on the Black Sea by Emperor Honorius about...

ANTIGONE'S BROTHER lies dead on the battlefield outside Thebes having attacked the city-state. Though her uncle, King Creon, forbids his body to be buried on pain of death, Antigone defies him in order to honour the spiritual law that decrees burial of the dead....

Monarch Notes 01-01-1963 Seven Against Thebes (467 B.C.) Background: Aeschylus won first prize for his Theban tetralogy, which included Laius, oedipus, Seven Against Thebes, and The Sphinx, a satyr-play. Of these, only Seven Against Thebes has survived. The play is rather static, simple in...

In the following excerpted introduction to his translation and reconstruction of the fragmentary Books of History by Olympiodorus, Chaffin considers the state of the text as partially preserved by later commentators, recounts the facts of Olympiodorus's life, and explores the literary style and method of historical judgment presented in this work.

In the following excerpt, Blockley studies Olympiodorus's Books of History from extant fragments and commentaries, contrasting Olympiodorus's pagan, informal, and analytical history with roughly contemporary works by the late Roman historians Eunapius and Zosimus.

In the following excerpt, Cameron explicates “Fragment 44” of Olympiodorus's Books of History, a piece that concerns the expenditures of wealthy Roman patricians.